Electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as laser printers and LED printers, are well known in the art. In one such image forming apparatus, a developing cartridge that accommodates toner is detachably mounted to an apparatus body of the image forming apparatus. As the developing cartridge is mounted to the apparatus body, a developing roller of the developing cartridge contacts a photosensitive drum of the apparatus body, making image formation possible.
One such image forming apparatus includes the developing cartridge with a storage element for storing information about the developing cartridge, such as the number of pages that the developing cartridge is capable of printing. The storage element may be an integrated circuit (chip), for example. In this image forming apparatus, the storage element is connected to cartridge-side contacts of the developing cartridge. When the developing cartridge is mounted to the apparatus body of the image forming apparatus, the cartridge-side contacts come into contact with body-side contacts of the image forming apparatus, enabling the image forming apparatus to read information related to the developing cartridge from the storage element.